Whole-body dual-energy bone densitometry using a narrow angle fan beam to cover the entire body in successive scans

ABSTRACT

A scanning radiographic densitometer constructs a broad area, two dimensional projection image from a combination of a set of smaller fan beam scans by tilting the axis of each such smaller scan to construct an effective larger fan beam to reduce artifacts caused by height dependant overlap of the multiple fan beams. The data is projected to a non-planar image surface to eliminate local area distortion such as may cause error in density measurements and to permit some overlap without height sensitive effects.

This application is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No.07/916,797 filed Nov. 16, 1992 .Iadd.now U.S. Pat. No. 5,287,546.Iaddend.and entitled: "Patient Positioning Apparatus for Bone Scanning"which is a continuation-in-part of application Ser. No. 07/944,626 filedSep. 14, 1992 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,228,068 and entitled: "Method forAnlyzing Vertebral Morphology Using Digital Radiography".

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to radiographic instruments andmore particularly to an apparatus for assembling broad area images fromnarrow beam radiographic scans.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Scanning radiographic equipment differs from conventional radiography inthat it employs a narrowly collimated beam of radiation, typicallyx-rays formed into, for example, a fan beam, rather than a broad areacone beam. The small beam size used in scanning radiographic equipmentallows replacement of an image forming sheet of radiographic film, usedwith conventional radiographic equipment, with a small area array ofdetector elements.

The detector elements receiving the transmitted radiation produceelectrical signals which may be converted to digital values by an analogto digital converter for the later development of an image or for otherprocessing by computer equipment. The ability to quantify themeasurement of the transmitted radiation, implicit in the digitizationby the analog to digital converter, allows not only the formation of aradiographic "attenuation" image but also the mathematical analysis ofthe composition of the attenuating material by dual energy techniques.See generally, "Generalized Image Combinations in Dual KVP DigitalRadiography", by Lehmann et al. Med. Phys. 8(5) September/October 1981.Such dual energy techniques quantitatively compare the attenuation ofradiation at two energies to distinguish, for example, between bone andsoft tissue. Dual energy techniques allow the measurement of bone mass,such measurement being important in the treatment of osteoporosis andother bone diseases.

The limited area of the beam of radiation used in scanning radiographicsystems allows the use of limited area detectors permitting highresolution with relatively lower cost. The limited area of thedetectors, however requires that the beam be scanned along severaladjacent path if large area images are to be constructed. Typically, afan beam will be scanned in a raster pattern over the area to bemeasured, each line of the scan separated by somewhat less than thewidth of fan beam to ensure complete illumination of the entire volumeof the imaged object, with the directions of scanning being generallyperpendicular to the direction of the radiation and the plane of the fanbeam.

Images formed by a scanning radiographic system are potentially moreaccurate than those produced by a typical broad beam radiograph system.This accuracy arises from the limited divergence, in the scanningdirection, of the rays of the fan beam, as compared to a broad area conebeam. This narrow collimation of the fan beam reduces "parallax" in theprojected image, particularly of anatomical planar surfaces that arenearly parallel with the plane of the tan beam--such as the superior andinterior borders of the vertebrae in the spine when the scanning ..directions.!. .Iadd.direction .Iaddend.is along the superior-inferioraxis of the body.

Morphological measurements of the vertebrae, and other structures, whichbenefit from reduced parallax are used to evaluate various dimensions ofa vertebra to detect crushing or other deformation that are one elementof certain bone diseases such as osteoporosis. See e.g. Minne et al., "ANewly Developed Spine Deformity Index (SDI) to Quantitate VertebralCrush Factors in Patients with Osteoporosis," Bone and Mineral,3:335-349 (1988); J. C. Gallagher et al, "Vertebral Morphometry:Normative Data," Bone and Mineral, 4:189-196 (1988); Hedlund et al,"Vertebral Morphometry in Diagnosis of Spinal Fractures," Bone andMineral, 5:59-67 (1988); and Hedlund et al, "Change in Vertebral Shapein Spinal Osteoporosis," Calcified Tissue International, 44:168-172(1989). Automatic techniques for morphological measurements of bone aredescribed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/944,626 filed Sep. 14,1992 and entitled: "Method for Analyzing Vertebral Morphology UsingDigital Radiography" assigned to the same assignee as the presentapplication and hereby incorporated by reference.

Nevertheless images developed with scanning fan beam equipment caninclude certain distortions or artifacts. In particular, it has beennoted that objects at the interface between two adjacent scan pathscontain a blurring or distortion in a direction perpendicular to thescan path.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a method and apparatus for constructingbroad area images from a sequence of narrow fan beam scans. Theinvention recognizes that a source of image artifacts in combiningnarrow, fan beam scans is the varying amount of overlap between the fanbeams when the axes of the fan beams are held parallel. This overlapcauses some volume elements of the patient to be measured with rays attwo different angles. The amount of overlap depends on the height of thestructure being imaged, as measured along the path of the fan beams, andthus cannot, in general, be determined or corrected in a two dimensionalimage.

The present invention vanes the angle of the axis of each fan beam so asto create a larger, effective fan beam of arbitrary width and toeliminate any height dependent overlap. The elimination of heightdependent overlap ensures that each volume element of the patient ismeasured by rays at only one angle. Specifically, the invention employsan imaging system having a radiation source directing a fan beam ofradiation toward the patient, where the fan beam diverges about aradiation axis, substantially within a beam plane, from a focal spot. Aradiation detector opposing the radiation source along the radiationaxis receives the diverging beam of radiation after passage through thepatient to produce a projection signal indicating the attenuation of thebeam of radiation for multiple rays within the beam.

The radiation axis may be moved along a first and second path across thepatient, the first and second paths being spaced apart and substantiallyperpendicular to the beam plane. In moving between the first and secondpaths of the scan, the radiation axis is rotated about the focal spot bya displacement angle, within the beam plane. The signals obtained alongthe first and second path are then combined to produce a two dimensionalprojection image.

It is thus one object of the invention to reduce image artifacts, causedby combining image data obtained from multiple scannings of a narrow fanbeam. Creating a larger, effective fan beam eliminates areas of overlapor produces areas of overlap that, with appropriate projections, areconstant regardless of the height of the imaged structures and whichtherefore can be eliminated by a constant weighting factor applied tothe data of the overlapping area.

The radiation detector may be a linear array of detector elements, eachsubtending a first width of the fan beam along the linear array, wherethe . .projections.!. .Iadd.projection .Iaddend.signals include aplurality of elements signals from each detector element. A projectormay be employed to map the element signals to pixels of a non-planarimage surface generally normal to the radiation axis, each pixelsubtending second widths of the fan beam varying from the first widths.The non-planar image surface may be positioned midway along the heightof the patient as measured along the radiation access.

It is thus another object of the invention to reduce the distortioncaused by the divergence of rays in both the marrow measuring fan beamsand the larger, effective fan beam by mapping the element signals topixels of a non-planar surface so that each such pixel represents raysof the fan beam passing through equal areas of the patient. This reducesvariations, for example, in bone mineral density measurements, which aresensitive to distortion in the measured area.

It is another object of the invention to reduce the magnitude of ..magnifications.!. .Iadd.magnification .Iaddend.induced errors on theprojected image. By positioning the non planar image surface toapproximately bisect the body, distance between the imaging plane andany particular structure in the body, such as affects magnifications, isreduced to a minimum.

The foregoing and other objects and advantages of the invention willappear from the following description. In the description, reference ismade to the accompanying drawings which form a pan hereof and in whichthere is shown by way of illustration, a preferred embodiment of theinvention. Such embodiment does not necessarily represent the full scopeof the invention, however, and reference must be made therefore to theclaims herein for interpreting the scope of the invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a densitometer per the present inventionshowing a C-arm, having an x-ray source and a detector, and a tablepositioned for holding a patient and a controlling computer;

FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) are plan and elevation views of the table of FIG. 1showing the hourglass shape of the table and a typical scanning patternthat may be employed by the present invention;

FIG. 3(a) is a cross-section of one support for the table of FIG. 1taken along line 3(a)-3(a) in FIG. 1 showing the upward curvature of thetable surface and the mechanism for elevating and lowering the table;

FIG. 3(b) is a cross-section of the support of FIG. 3(a) taken alongline 3(b)-3(b) of FIG. 3(a);

FIG. 3(c) is a perspective cutaway view of the supporting mechanism forthe C-arm of FIG. 1 showing rotation of the C-arm with respect to thegantry pallet and the x and y translation of the pallet;

FIG. 4 is a view in elevation taken along line 4--4 of FIG. 1 showingdifferent positions of the radiation source and detector for a scanningpattern of FIG. 2(a) and regions of overlap between adjacent fan ..beam.!. .Iadd.beams .Iaddend.such as may cause artifacts in a compositeimage;

FIG. 5 is a simplified diagram of a composite image of a cubic volumepositioned in the region of overlap of FIG. 4 having a superimposeddotted line circumscribing the structure's actual dimensions to showtransverse distortion caused by the region of overlap;

FIG. 6 is a diagram similar to FIG. 4 showing positioning of theradiation source, radiation detector, and table of the densitometer ofFIG. 1, exaggerated for clarity, to realize a larger, effective beam perthe present invention;

FIG. 7 is a diagram similar to FIG. 6, but from a view point an thetable, showing the combination of the beams generated per FIG. 6 to formthe larger, effective fan beam received by the linear radiation detectoras moved to a variety of corresponding positions with no overlap;

FIG. 8 is a detailed view of a fan beam received by the linear radiationdetector showing the mapping of rays of radiation within equal angledintervals to the surfaces of the linear radiation detector and to acurved image surface;

FIG. 9 is a schematic representation of the processing of the raw dataimage collected by the radiation detector as mapped to the imaginarycurved image surface of . .in.!. FIG. 9;

FIG. 10 is a graph of a simplified projection signal as received bydetector elements of the radiation detector showing the mapping of theprojection signal to the pixels of the curved image surface; and

FIG. 11 is a figure similar to that of FIG. 7 showing an effective fanbeam with constant overlap between the fan beams.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

Referring to FIG. 1, a bone densitometer 10 constructed according to thepresent invention includes a table 12 for supporting a patient 14 in asitting position prior to and after an examination (as shown) or in asupine position along the table's longitudinal axis 16 during anexamination. The table 12 is constructed of epoxy impregnated carbonfiber laminated over a foamed plastic core. This combination ofmaterials is extremely light, and generally radiolucent and stiff.Further, the attenuation is extremely uniform so as to prevent theintroduction of artifacts into the radiographic images. The table 12 hasa generally linear cross-section along the longitudinal axis 16 and anupwardly concave cross-section along a transverse axis 18 perpendicularto the longitudinal axis 16. Thus, the table 12 is a trough-shaped sheetwhose transverse curvature provides additional resistance tolongitudinal bending.

Support pillars 20 hold either longitudinal end of the table 12. Thesupport pillars 20 are separated by a distance greater than the typicalheight of the patients to be examined so that the support pillars 20 donot obstruct the scanning process nor attenuate the measuring radiation.The longitudinal stiffness of the table 12 allows it to bridge thedistance between the pillars 20 as an unsupported horizontal spanthereby eliminating additional radiation attenuating structure.

In one embodiment shown in FIG. 2(b) the transverse width of the table12 varies along its longitudinal extent being widest near the supportpillars 20, and thus near the head and feet of the patient 14 when thepatient 14 is in the supine position on the table 12, and narrowest atthe mid-portion of the table 12 corresponding generally to the area ofthe patient's vertebrae. This narrowing of the table 12 is in the formof two rounded notches 24 extending inward toward the center of thetable from either transverse edge and imparting to the table anhourglass shape as viewed along a vertical axis 22 perpendicular to thelongitudinal and transverse axes 16 and 18 respectively.

Referring now to FIGS. 1, 3(a) and 3(b), support pillars 20 extendvertically downward around upward extending posts 26, the latter whichare attached, at their bottom ends, to a bed 28 supporting thedensitometer 10. The support pillars 20 each include a horizontalarchitrave 21, extending the width of the table 12 and attached to arespective end of the table 12, and vertical channel shaped casing 23surrounding the posts 26 to vertically slide in engagement with theposts 26 guided by a set of rollers 17 attached to the casing 23. Thecasings 23, and hence the support pillars 20, may be positionedvertically as driven by actuators 30 each comprising a nut 27 attachedto an outer casing wall and a lead screw 29 received at one end by thenut 27 and at the other end by a right angled drive 25 attached beneaththe nut to the bed 28. A common drive shaft 31 connects each rightangled drive 2 to a single stepper motor (not shown) so that rotation ofthe drive shaft 31 turns the right angled drives 25 and hence the leadscrews 29 in tandem so as to raise and lower the table 12 on pillars 20while maintaining the table's horizontal attitude. The number of stepsmade by the stepper motor is simply related to the change in tableheight.

Referring to FIG. 1 and 3(c) the bed 28 includes two longitudinal rails32 which form a track for supporting a transversely extending gantrypallet 34, and which allow the gantry pallet 34 to be positionedlongitudinally along substantially the entire length of the densitometer10 (as indicated by longitudinal axis 16).

The gantry pallet 34 includes transverse rails 33 carried by rollers(not visible) fitting within the rails 32 and motivated by a steppermotor driven flexible belt 35. Riding on the rails 33 of the gantrypallet 34 is a slider 36 moved transversely by stepper motor driven belt37. The slider 36 supports a turntable 39 having a vertically orientedaxis of rotation 19 and rotated by . .mean.!. .Iadd.means .Iaddend.ofstepper motor driven belt 41. As before, the stepper motors drivingbelts 35 and 37 allow a determination of the precise movement of theirrespective components through a tallying of the steps taken, as will beunderstood to those of ordinary skill in the art.

The turntable 39 supports a C-arm collar 38. Collar 38 is generallyarcuate to enclose and slidably hold a C-arm 40 such that the ends ofthe C-arm may rotate about an isocenter 42 as the body of the C-arm 40slides through the collar 38. The C-arm 40 is constructed as describedin U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,046 to Aldona A. Siczek and Bernard W. Siczekentitled: "C-Arm for X-ray Dignostic Examination". The C-arm 40 ismotorized, as is understood in the art, to allow remote control over thepositioning of the C-arm 40 in collar 38.

The radiation source 44, which is an x-ray tube, is mounted at one endof the C-arm 40 via a support beam 46 and is oriented to direct apolychromatic x-ray fan beam 48 along beam axis 49 generally towards theisocenter 42. The fan beam emanates from a focal spot 45 and divergesaway from the beam axis 49 within a fan beam plane 57 to define a fanbeam angle φ.

The fan beam 48 is received by a linear detector array 50 extendingperpendicularly to the fan beam axis 49, within the fan beam plane 57,and generally on the opposite side of the patient 14. The lineardetector array 50 is comprised of a number of adjacent detector elements47 each of which may detect the attenuation of one ray of the fan beam48. The linear detector array 50 may be a scintillation type detector,as is understood in the art, having scintillation materials whichconvert x-rays to visible light to be detected by photodetectors whichproduce a corresponding electrical signal. Each detector element 47 ofthe detector array 50 incorporates two side-by-side scintillators andphotodetectors to measure the x-rays fluence, of the polychromatic fanbeam 48, in one of two energy bands and thus to provide, duringscanning, a dual energy measurement at each point in the scan. As notedabove, such dual energy measurements allow the tissue of the patient 14being measured at a given point associated with a detector element 47 tobe characterized as to its composition, for example, into bone or softtissue.

The detector array 50 is affixed to a stop plate 52 and mounted to theopposing end of the C-arm 40.

Together, motion of the pallet 34 and slider 36 permit a scanning by thedetector 50 and radiation source 44 of the densitometer 10, the scanningtranslating the beam axis 49 across the patient 14, whereas the motionof the turntable 39 (of FIG. 3(c).Iadd.) .Iaddend.allows for control ofthe angle of the fan beam plane 57 with respect to the patient 14, aswill be described.

The motion of the slider 36 (shown in FIG. 3(c)) is not limited toproviding a scanning motion but may be used, in conjunction withrotation of the C-arm 40 in collar 38, to provide improved imaging ofspecific structures in the body without disturbing the patient 14 fromthe supine position. For example, imaging of the femur 53 of a supinepatient 14 is ideally done at an angle of approximately 20°-25° fromvertical. In prior art devices this typically required uncomfortableinward rotation of the leg of the patient 14. The ability, in thepresent invention, both to rotate the C-arm 40 and to move the slider 36along the transverse axis 18, and thus to move the isocenter 42, permitsthis imaging to be done without movement of the patient 14.Specifically, the desired angle of the C-arm 40 is simply selected andthe slider 36 moved so that the beam axis 49 aligns with the femur 53.This and other aspects of the architecture of the densitometer 10 arediscussed in the parent application Ser. No. 07/944,626 filed Sep. 14,1992 and entitled: "Method for Analyzing Vertebral Morphology UsingDigital Radiography", hereby incorporated by reference.

Combined motion of the C-arm 40, the slider 36, the pallet 34 and thetable 12 permit the densitometer 10 to scan images not simply along theanterior/posterior and lateral directions, but at any angle of the C-arm40. Each of these actions of the C-arm 40, the slider 36, the pallet 34,and the table 12 may be controlled by a computer 56 having a displayterminal 58 and a keyboard 60 such as are well known in the art. Byproviding step commands to the motors associated with the variouscomponents above described, the computer 56 may control and locate thesecomponents, for example, by adjusting and tracking the height of thetable 12, through actuators 30. The computer 56 also turns the radiationsource 44 on and off and importantly collects digitized attenuation datafrom the individual elements of the linear detector array 50 to generatea matrix of measured data elements over the patient 14.

Referring now to FIGS. 2(a) and 4, radiation source 44 and the detectorarray 50 may be positioned with respect to collar 38 so that the beamaxis 49 is substantially vertical. For a whole body scan of a patient14, the detector array 50 can be oriented transversely as indicated by50(b) so as to scan longitudinally as indicated generally by thesequence of areas A1, B1 and C1 from the patient's head to the patient'sfoot. During this scanning, the fan beam axis 49 traces a first path 59.At the end of this scan, a second longitudinal row of data would betaken conforming generally to the sequence of areas A2, B2 and C2 withfan beam axis tracing along second path 61, from the patient's foot tothe patient's head. Four to five such longitudinal rows may be requiredfor a full body scan.

Typically, at the conclusion of the scan of the first path 59, followingthe sequence A1, B1, C1 . . . , both the radiation source 44 anddetector army 50 would both be moved transversely so that the fan beamaxis 49, still vertical, intercepts the second scan path 61. The fanbeam axis 49 as so displaced is designated 49', and is movedtransversely by an amount equal to the transverse width (measured withinthe fan beam plane 57) of the fan beam 48 as it enters the patient 14.This displacement, which is generally smaller than the fan beam width asit exits the patient 14, ensures that all volumes of the patient 14 areilluminated in one of the several longitudinal paths of the whole bodyscan. This scanning procedure, however, will also produce a triangularoverlap area 69 of redundant measurement between fan beams on paths 59and 61 and will cause certain volume elements of the patient within thatarea 69 to be illuminated twice and hence measured twice during thescanning. For example, vertically aligned cubic volume elements 66, 67and 68 within the patient 14 and approximately half-way between scanpaths 59 and 61 will be scanned during motion along both scan paths 59and 61.

Referring now also to FIG. 5, this dual measurement of volume elements66-68 will in general cause a transverse spatial distortion in the imageof these structures. This distortion rises from the different angles ofthe measuring rays and, in general, the lack of information as to theheight of the volume elements 66-68 within the patient 14. When the dataof the individual scans along paths 59 and 61 are simply combined, theuncertainty in height of the volume elements 66-68 translates to anuncertainty in transverse position, and the image exhibits a transversespreading or smearing. For example, if an image is projected to animaginary plane at the height of the upper surface of the detector array50 (a default image plane if the raw data from the detector array isotherwise unprocessed), then cubic volume element 66 having trueprojected outline 70 will project to a rectangular element 72 havingwing portions 74 of lower density than a central portion 76.

In addition to the spatial distortion caused by the multiplemeasurements in area 69, the redundancy of the data will distort theabsorption values associated with the points of the projected image. Theimage's central portion 76, for example, will be the sum of twomeasurements of volume element 66 whereas the wing areas 74 will be onlyone measurement of volume element 66. In theory, this error can becorrected by a weighting of the projection data so that the effect ofthe redundancy is eliminated, however, again because the height of thevolume element 66 is not known, an accurate weighting system cannot bederived. In general, height information is not available in atwo-dimensional projection.

The present invention recognizes that the distortion of FIG. 5 is notsimply due to the overlapping of fan beams 48 along adjacent scans butrather because of the vacation in overlap as a function of height withinthe patient 14. Accordingly, the print invention provides a method oforienting the fan beam axis 49 for the scanning of multiple longitudinalcolumns so that the overlap, if any, is constant along the length of thefan beam axis 49.

Referring now to FIGS. 6 and 7, this requirement of constant overlapbetween fan beams 48 of scans of adjacent columns of the patient 14requires the edges of the fan beams, opposed about the fan beams axes 49within the beam plane 57, be parallel, and most simply abut one another.As shown in FIG. 7, if the fan beam 48 associated with scan path 59 isdesignated 48(a) and its axis 49(a) and the fan beam 48 associated withscan path 61 is designated 48(b) and it axis 49(b), and so forth for theremainder of the fan beams 48 employed in the whole body scan of patient14, then each of the successive axes 49 will be displaced about thefocal spot 45 by exactly φ, the fan beam angle, and the edges of theadjacent fan beams will just abut when viewed from the perspective ofthe patient 14 and the table 12. In this case the focal spot 45 for eachof the fan beams 48(a)-(d) is the same (with respect to the position ofthe table 12) for each scan, or more precisely, does not move along, thefan beam plane 57 with respect to the table 12.

Alternatively, as seen in FIG. 11, the edges of the fan beams 48(a)-(d)may overlap slightly but by a constant width. Again, each of thesuccessive axes 49 for the fan beams 48(a)-(d) will be displacedangularly by exactly φ the fan beam angle, but the focal spots45(a)-(d), for each fan beam 48(a)-(d), respectively, will no longer befixed in the table reference frame. Nevertheless, because the amount ofoverlap is unvarying as a function of distance along the fan beam axis49, using the appropriate projection and weighting process, as will bedescribed, image artifacts caused by the overlap may be removed.Although the areas of overlap 69' are of constant thickness, they changein transverse location depending on the height of the beams in thepatient 14. This would seem to raise the same problem of heightdependence caused by triangular areas of overlap 69 of FIG. 4, however,the height dependence can be eliminated for constant thickness overlapareas 69' by the proper choice of a projection plane, as will bedescribed below.

In both of the cases of FIGS. 7 and 11, the fan beams 48(a)-(d) arecombined to realize an effective, larger fan beam. In the case of FIG.11, the projections in the area of overlap must be weighted to presentthe redundant data from having a disproportionate effect on thecomposite projection image. This weighting may be, at a minimum, simplydiscarding one set of redundant data (a weighting of zero) or by givingthe two sets of data a pair of weights that sum to one. At present, thepossibility of patient motion, makes no overlap or the discarding ofoverlap data preferred, because a weighting and combining blurs theimage and is less preferred for diagnosis than some mis-registration inthe combined image.

Further, it will be recognized that the amount or overlap must be keptsmall, even if there is no height dependence, because the importantcondition is that the rays measuring each volume element of the patientbe at one angle, and the rays of the overlapping edges of the fan beamswill have approximately the same angle only for small amounts ofoverlap.

Referring now to FIG. 6, although the effective larger fan beam may beassembled from fan beams . .48(a-).!..Iadd.48(a).Iaddend.-(d) in astraightforward way in the reference frame of the table 12, the actualmotion of the C-arm 40, the table 12 and the slider 36 and pallet 34 ofthe densitometer 10 in the reference frame of the room is more complex.The angle of the fan beam axes 49(a)-(d) may be achieved simply byrotating the C-arm 40 within its collar 38. However, generally, thisrotation will change the height of the focal spot 45 with respect to thetable 12 and will change the transverse location of the focal spot 45with respect to the table 12. Accordingly, compensatory motion of thetable 12, up or down and transversely, will need to be performed. Theproper orientation of the fan beams 48(a)-(d) is thus performed by a setof motions of the various components of the densitometer 10 workingtogether under the control of computer 56.

It should be noted that the effective wide area fan beam might beexpected to produce considerable spatial distortion if used with asingle linear detector array spanning the entire effective fan beam (orif the detector array 50 were simply translated along a line beneath theeffective fan beam).Iadd.. .Iaddend.Such distortion would be caused bythe increasing distance between the focal spot 45 and the elements ofthe detector array 50 for the edgemost rays of the effective fan beam.An increase in distance causes an increased magnification of the imagereceived by the detector array 50 which can also affect quantitativemeasurements such as bone density to be described below. Nevertheless,the present invention avoids this extreme distortion by piecewiseapproximating a curved detector (of constant distance from the focalspot for the entire effective fan beam) by means of the short segmentsof the actual detector array 50.

Nevertheless, each short segment 50 still deviates from a true curveddetector and thus, the detector elements of each detector 50 havevarying distances from the effective focal spot 45 of the composite fanbeam. This deviation can be corrected in the projection process of thepresent invention, as will be described.

Referring to FIG. 8, a fan beam 48(a) of the effective fan beam includesa number of rays 82 comprising adjacent triangular zones of equal angleabout the focal spot 45. To a first approximation, each ray 82 measures. .a.!. .Iadd.an .Iaddend.equal area of the patient 14. Ideally, then,each ray 82 should map to a single picture element (pixel) of atwo-dimensional projection image constructed of the data collected inthe scan. This mapping of rays 82 to pixels, preserves the local spatialfidelity of the image and prevents distortion in the quantitative valuesassigned to each pixel such as may be area sensitive. For example, ifthe attenuation of the energy of the fan beam 48 by the patient 14indicates bone mineral content (BMC) in grams, the diagnostically usefulquantity of bone mineral density (BMC) in g/cm² requires an accuratepreservation of area information. This equal area pixel mapping isadvantageous in the measurement of BMD.

Nevertheless, the spatial periodicity of the rays 82 will not in generalmatch that of the detector elements 47 of the detector array 50. Forexample, if the outermost ray 82 of a fan beam 48(a) exactly subtendsthe outermost detector element 47(a) of the detector array 50, a morecentrally located ray 82 will . .subtends.!. .Iadd.subtend .Iaddend.lessthan the area of a more centrally located detector element 47(e). If theraw data from the detector elements 47 is directly mapped to pixels ofan image, area distortion will occur. Further, the distance of theoutermost detector elements 47(a) from the focal spot 45 will typicallybe greater than that of the more centrally located detector elements47(e). This distance variation will cause magnification distortion, asgenerally discussed above.

Accordingly, referring also to FIGS. 9 and 10, the data obtained fromeach detector element 47 is adjusted by a projection process to pixelsin a non-planar image surface. During the scanning process, the datafrom each detector element 47 of the detector array 50 is collected in amatrix 75 having elements 77 associated with a given coordinate in thescan (with respect to the table 12) and a row and column in the matrix75. Generally the rows of the matrix 75 will correspond to variations inthe transverse coordinate of the data of the scan, and the columns willcorrespond to variations in the longitudinal coordinate of the data ofthe scan. A single row 81 represents the data for one position of theeffective fan beam and the values of the data of that row 81 provide aprojection signal 83. The value of the projection signal 83 is astepwise continuous function of the number of the detector element.

Referring to FIGS. 8 and 10, the projection signal 83 may be projectedto a curved image surface 90 having pixels 80 exactly subtending one ray82 each. This mapping 92 is accomplished by partitioning the projectionsignal 83 according to the geometric relationship between the pixels 80of the curved image surface 90 and the detector elements 47. Forexample, pixel 80(a) spans the projection signals produced by detectorelements 47(c) and 47(b). Accordingly the value of pixel 80(a) is simplythe average value of the detector signals within the span or a weightedaverage of the values of the projection signals 83 for detector elements47(c) and (d) in proportion to how much they are overlapped. Thisprojection process is repeated for each . .pixels.!. .Iadd.pixel.Iaddend.80 of the image surface 90 until all the data has beenprojected.

If a curved image surface 90 is adopted equal to the radius of curvaturefocal spot 45 for that image surface 90, then moving the image surface90 up and down along the fan beam axes 49 is simply a uniform scaling ofthe image. Preferably, the absolute height of the image surface 90 willbe selected to approximately bisect the height of the patient 14. Thiswill reduce the magnitude of the magnification error in the image causedby the diverging rays 82 of the fan beams 48 by reducing the absolutevalue of the distance between volume elements 66-68 of the patient 14from the image surface 90. The use of . .a.!. .Iadd.an .Iaddend.imagesurface 90 curved about the focal spot 45 also eliminates heightdependency of the areas of overlap 69' as discussed with respect to FIG.11, because in the projection geometry the overlap will have constanttransverse location in the image surface 90.

Referring now to FIG. 10, in an anterior/posterior scan of the patient14, where the fan beam axis 49 is oriented vertically, the data of arectilinear matrix 75 of data elements 77 is acquired. Each element 77of the matrix 75 has a location corresponding to a particular path of aray of the fan beam 48 through the patient 14, and to one detectorelement 47 of the detector array 50, and each data element 77 has avalue related to the attenuation of that ray as it passes through thepatient 14. As is understood in the art, the computer 56 stores thepixel values and their relative spatial locations so that each dataelement 77 may be readily identified to the particular area of thepatient 14 at which the data of the data element 77 was collected.

According to well understood dual energy imaging techniques, the valueof each data element 77 is derived from measurements of the patient attwo energy levels and thus provides information indicating thecomposition of the material causing that attenuation. In particular, thedata element value indicates the bone mineral content of the volume ofthe patient corresponding to the data element location.

The above description has been that of a preferred embodiment of thepresent invention. It will occur to those that practice the art thatmany modifications may be made without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention. In order to apprise the public of the variousembodiments that may fall within the scope of the invention, thefollowing claims are made.

We claim:
 1. An imaging system for obtaining diagnostic images of apatient comprising:a radiation source for directing a fan beam ofradiation toward the patient, the fan beam diverging about a radiationaxis but substantially within a beam plane from a focal spot; aradiation detector opposing the radiation source along the radiationaxis for receiving the diverging beam of radiation after passage throughthe patient to produce a projection signal indicating the attenuation ofthe beam of radiation for multiple rays within the beam; a translatingmeans for translating the radiation axis along a first and second pathacross the patient, the first and second paths being spaced apart andsubstantially perpendicular to the beam plane; a repositioning means forrotating the radiation axis about the focal spot by a displacementangle, within the beam plane so as to move the radiation axis from thefirst path to the second path; and means for combining the projectionsignal obtained along the first and second path to produce a twodimensional projection image.
 2. The imaging system of claim 1 whereinthe repositioning means rotates the . .displacement.!. .Iadd.radiation.Iaddend.axis without displacement of the focal spot within the beamplane with respect to the patient .Iadd.as measured when the radiationaxis is aligned with one of the first and second paths.Iaddend..
 3. Theimaging system of claim 1 wherein the fan beam has a fan beam anglemeasured within the beam plane and the repositioning means rotates the ..displacement.!. .Iadd.radiation .Iaddend.axis by the fan beam angle. 4.The imaging system of claim 1 wherein the radiation detector is a lineararray of detector elements, each subtending a first width of the fanbeam along the linear array, and wherein the . .projections.!..Iadd.projection .Iaddend.signals includes a plurality of . .elements.!..Iadd.element .Iaddend.signals from each element, the imaging systemincluding:a projector for mapping the element signals to pixels of anon-planar image surface generally normal to the radiation axis, eachpixel subtending second widths of the fan beam varying from the firstwidths.
 5. The imaging system of claim 4 wherein the non-planar imagesurface is a section of a cylinder having a constant radius equal to thedistance between the surface and the radiation source to substantiallybisect the patient.
 6. An imaging system for obtaining diagnostic imagesof a patient comprising:a radiation source for directing a fan beam ofradiation toward the patient, the fan beam diverging about a radiationaxis but substantially within a beam plane from a focal spot; a lineararray of detector elements opposing the radiation source along theradiation axis, each detector element subtending a first width of thefan beam along the linear array, the linear array for receiving thediverging beam of radiation after passage through the patient to producea projection signal which includes a plurality of element signalscorresponding to the detector elements and indicating the attenuation ofthe beam of radiation for given rays within the beam; and a projectorfor mapping the element signals to pixels of a non-planar image surfacegenerally normal to the radiation axis, each pixel subtending secondwidths of the fan beam varying from the first widths.
 7. The imagingsystem of claim 6 wherein the non-planar image surface is a section of acylinder having a constant radius equal to the distance between thesurface and the radiation source the radius selected to substantiallybisect the patient. .Iadd.
 8. The imaging system of claim 1 wherein themeans for combining provides a weighting of the projection signal ofareas of overlap between areas of the fan beam when the radiation axisscanning of the first and second paths. .Iaddend..Iadd.9. The imagingsystem of claim 1 wherein the imaging system is a bone densitometer..Iaddend..Iadd.10. The imaging system of claim 9 wherein the bonedensitometer is a dual energy bone densitometer. .Iaddend..Iadd.11. Theimaging system of claim 9 wherein the radiation source is apolychromatic x-ray source. .Iaddend..Iadd.12. The imaging system ofclaim 9 wherein the fan beam is scanned in a raster pattern over thepatient, the raster scan formed of the first and additional pathswherein the number of paths and the separation of the paths is chosen toensure complete illumination of the total body of the patient..Iaddend..Iadd.13. The imaging system of claim 1 wherein therepositioning means rotates the radiation axis about the focal spot by adisplacement distance within the beam plane while translating the focalspot by displacement distance within the beam plane so as to move theradiation axis from the first path to the second path. .Iaddend.